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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27972215">Too Late For A Happy End</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/immortalje/pseuds/immortalje'>immortalje</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Fear And Love [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Doctor Who (2005)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M, Post-Episode: s03e13 Last of the Time Lords</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2019-04-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2019-04-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 15:48:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>360</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27972215</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/immortalje/pseuds/immortalje</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After they way they parted in "Fear of Rejection", they meet again and the Doctor has to learn some hard truths.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Past Ninth Doctor/Jack Harkness, implied Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Fear And Love [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2048781</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Too Late For A Happy End</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He had never expected to see him again. Not really and certainly not in this way. Jack hugged him and was excited to see him! There was no sign of rejection at all. He took his new appearance at face value and didn't fuss about the possibilities at all. The Doctor's hearts jumped upon hearing how long Jack had waited and a part of him wished he had made a different decision, figuring that this would have helped with Rose's acceptance a lot, realising that he had broken his own hearts for nothing.</p><p>The long hurting part within him that was solely dedicated to missing Jack was rejoicing at their reunion. He painted images of Jack travelling with him again, just like old times - that is if you ignored Rose's absence.</p><p>All his fantasies came crashing down when Jack introduced his boyfriend. The Doctor wished he could hate him for stealing his Jack, but found himself unable to. Instead there was just pain in his chest. Apparently, the century apart had been too long for Jack combined with the pain of being left behind. As humans so aptly put it, "Time heals all wounds" and he was too late to be the one doing the healing. The worst thing about this situation was that he had nobody to blame but himself. He had made a choice trying to protect himself from something that wouldn't have happened and only through the choice he had made, did it actually become true. It's so typical human – you're told something is going to happen and try to avoid it and through your actions it truly happens where it wouldn't have before.</p><p>As he left, he watched Jack on the monitor once again. This time, he wasn't the one making the choice and he hated it. He hated himself for not having had enough trust in Jack. All this time he had feared being rejected only to find out that it wouldn't have been an issue. If he was honest with himself, knowing that hurt way worse than if he had been rejected all this time ago and his supposed superiority hadn't helped at all.</p>
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